Independence: Shipbuilding ‘up for discussion’

PERRY GOURLEY

DEFENCE group BAE Systems was last night drawn into another dispute over its plans for the Clyde shipbuilding industry if Scotland votes for independence in September.

Angus Robertson, the SNP’s Westminster leader and defence spokesperson, said comments by Geoff Searle, BAE Systems’ type 26 programme director, to an industry publication “must end the anti-independence shipbuilding scare stories once and for all”.

Mr Searle was quoted as saying the company was only looking at a “single site” solution to build the next generation of warships and that all of its planning is “based on the assumption that we will build at the revamped Scotstoun facility” on the Clyde.

But a spokesman for BAE Systems said yesterday that the company’s position had not changed.

“We are making plans based on the current circumstances and have made recommendations to the MoD that Glasgow is the best place for this work”.

She said in the event of a vote for independence it would have to discuss the situation with the MoD.